Swedish National Defence College, Department of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Fors, Maria

Swedish National Defence College, Department of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Nilsson, Sofia

Swedish National Defence College, Department of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Leadership2008In: Transformation of the Swedish armed forces: National and international aspects of interoperability / [ed] A. W. Berggren, Stockholm: Swedish National Defence College , 2008, p. 43-47Chapter in book (Other academic)

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to develop a theoretical understanding of indirect leadership in a severely stressful peacekeeping context, focusing on the perspective of subordinates. Peacekeeping missions in recent decades have led to increased exposure to acute danger.

Design/methodology/approach – Retrospective in-depth interviews were carried out with 17 Norwegian officers and soldiers, who were involved in the handling of a violent riot in Kosovo during a peacekeeping mission. The interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

Findings – A model emerged with three categories: Situational Characteristics, Organizational Characteristics, and the Commander's Intent. A related core category was labelled Subordinates' Appraisal or Sensemaking. During the climax of the riot, a strict following of the ordinary chain of command was impractical. Local initiatives at lower organizational levels were needed, but these, in turn, required competence and a trustful organizational environment.

Research limitations/implications – Not representative of the entire population. Given the male-dominated military context under consideration, there could be no meaningful analysis of possible gender-related differences. The results related to a general model of indirect leadership and specific stress. Organizational theory-related additions and limitations are suggested.

Practical implications – The proposed model may be a practical tool for management education.

Originality/value – The study's identification of key aspects of indirect leadership in severely stressful contexts is a useful addition to the literature.

The aim of the study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the force commander role in modern multinational and multifunctional missions. Several sources of data were collected: (1) a focus group interview with five former Swedish force commanders having served in Afghanistan, (2) nine individual in-depth interviews with the same sample of commanders, (3) one in-depth interview with a Swedish Civilian Representant (an ambassador) serving in Afghanistan, (4) facts on selection ciriteria and education/training of force commanders, and (5) formal documents where the role of the commander is dealt with. The results were related to a theoretical leadership model which implies that a number of individual and contextual characteristic interact and shape a commander’s appraisal or sensemaking of a given situation. This meaning, applied to what is taking place, in turn generates a number of leadership behaviours which, to a greater or lesser degree, affect the outcome. Conclusions and research suggestion for the future focus on the following:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of a previously developed model of indirect leadership (qualitative Grounded Theory case study) in a broader military context.

Design/methodology/approach – The model was operationalised to specific questionnaires for high-level managers, middle-level managers, and lower-level employees. Data were obtained from 147 Norwegian and 134 Swedish military officers, representing all three levels, and serving in the Army and Air Force respectively.

Findings – The theoretical model of indirect leadership was partly supported. Higher importance was attributed to image-oriented top-down influence, rather than to action-oriented influence via directly subordinate commanders, which may be understood using developmental, transformational, and authentic leadership formulations. Meaningful patterns of subgroup differences were obtained.

Research limitations/implications – Indirect leadership is complex and bottom-up influences were not taken into account, not all aspects of the top-down influence process were covered, only military contexts were studied, and no meaningful analysis of possible gender-related differences was possible in this male-dominated context.

Practical implications – The obtained support of the theoretical model legitimises its use as a tool in higher military management education and coaching.

Originality/value – The measurement tools of indirect leadership and the quantitatively based support of a Grounded Theory model with a how-focus on indirect leadership.

Purpose – To develop a theoretical understanding of how indirect leadership is done in a military context.

Design/methodology/approach – A grounded theory approach was used. Twenty-two high-level Swedish commanders, and six of their subordinates were interviewed.

Findings – A model was developed which suggests that indirect leadership can be understood as consisting of two simultaneous processes. One is action-oriented and consists of interacting with a link (usually a small group of directly subordinate managers) which passes the messages down to lower organisational levels. The other influence process is image-oriented and consists of being a role model. Both processes are filtered through a “lens” which consists of the relative impact of a safety culture on the activities. In the favourable case, the employees at the lower levels trust both the link and the higher management. This appears to be a necessary condition for commitment and active participation. In the unfavourable case, there is a lack of trust. This breeds redefinitions of the messages and a necessity for relying on reward and punishment to obtain obedience.

Research limitations/implications – Lack of representativeness, indirect influence from lower to higher levels, as well as possible gender-related aspects, not studied.

Practical implications – The suggested model may be a valuable tool in higher management education.

Originality/value – The identification of two co-occurring pathways of influence.

The aim was to develop a theoretical understanding of the decision-making process leading to appendectomy. A qualitative interview study was performed in the grounded theory tradition using the constant comparative method to analyze data. The study setting was one county hospital and two local hospitals in Sweden, where 11 surgeons and 15 surgical nurses were interviewed. A model was developed which suggests that surgeons’ decision making regarding appendectomy is formed by the interplay between their medical assessment of the patient's condition and a set of contextual characteristics. The latter consist of three interacting factors: (1) organizational conditions, (2) the professional actors’ individual characteristics and interaction, and (3) the personal characteristics of the patient and his or her family or relatives. In case the outcome of medical assessment is ambiguous, the risk evaluation and final decision will be influenced by an interaction of the contextual characteristics. It was concluded that, compared to existing, rational models of decision making, the model presented identified potentially important contextual characteristics and an outline on when they come into play.

Existing methods for handling patients’ opinions as a basis for quality improvement measures tend to be too sophisticated for practical nursing and/or weak psychometrically. An Index of Measures was developed by combining patients’ perceptions of actual care conditions with the subjective importance they ascribed to these conditions. Data from Swedish somatic inpatients (n = 4002) indicated that this index gave added value compared to patients’ ratings of actual care conditions only. Interpretation of the Index of Measures focused on the proportion of patients who receive the value ‘deficiency.’ This value is obtained if a given patient has a subjective importance rating on a given item which is higher than the mean subjective importance score for the whole patient group on that item, as well as a perceived reality rating on the item in question which is lower than the mean perceived reality rating for the whole group on that item. Guidelines are suggested on when improvement actions are necessary and when they are not necessary.

This study reviews empirical evidence for Moghaddam’s model “Staircase to Terrorism,” which portrays terrorism as a process of six consecutive steps culminating in terrorism. An extensive literature search, where 2,564 publications on terrorism were screened, resulted in 38 articles which were subject to further analysis. The results showed that while most of the theories and processes linked to Moghaddam’s model are supported by empirical evidence, the proposed transitions between the different steps are not. These results may question the validity of a linear stepwise model and may suggest that a combination of mechanisms/factors could combine in different ways to produce terrorism.

There is a lack of knowledge about the incidence of personality disorders and their consequences among peacekeepers. Moreover, most studies are follow-up studies in which, if at all, personality traits are screened for after the soldiers have left their service abroad. The aim of this paper was to study personality disorders in a longitudinal perspective. The method used was to screen the personnel in a Swedish mechanized battalion serving in Bosnia from March until October 1996 on four occasions: before deployment, immediately after deployment, 6 months after deployment and 1 year after deployment. Serving in the battalion were 724 individuals of whom 516 took part in the survey. The screening instrument used was the DSM-IV and ICD-10 Personality Questionnaire (DIP-Q). The result shows that the rate of personality disorders were on the same level, or a little bit lower, than in the general population. Moreover, personality disorders were related to impaired general mental health and to reported traumatic experiences. Personality disorders also seemed to contribute to poor mental health 1 year after returning home from a mission abroad. The implications of these results for the future selection of peacekeepers are discussed.

Assessments of mental health (GHQ-28) were performed on a Swedish battalion serving in Bosnia at 4 times: before deployment, immediately after deployment, 6 months after deployment, and 1 year after deployment. Complete responses were obtained from 316 participants (61% response rate). No significant change of mental health over time was noted. Individuals having experienced traumatic events in Bosnia, as well as stressful life events postdeployment, reported the poorest mental health. Logistic regression analysis showed that postdeployment stressors made the strongest contribution to registering a poor mental health score after one year.

Increased suicide rates for military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders have been reported in various countries. Although it is known that some peacekeepers are exposed to potentially traumatic events and are thus at risk of suffering from post-traumatic stress reactions, only a few studies have examined suicide rates in this group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the suicide rate among former Swedish peacekeeping personnel. We compared 39,768 former Swedish peacekeepers to the general population in the National General Population Registry and the Cause-of-Death Registry. A lower number of suicides was found among former Swedish peacekeepers than in the general population. In conclusion, Swedish personnel serving in international peacekeeping operations do not show a higher suicide rate than the general population. Unique problems associated with this research area are discussed.

Humanitarian aid professionals frequently encounter situations in which one is conscious of the morally appropriate action but cannot take it because of institutional obstacles. Dilemmas like this are likely to result in a specific kind of stress reaction at the individual level, labeled as moral stress. In our study, 16 individuals working with international humanitarian aid and rescue operations participated in semistructured interviews, analyzed in accordance with a grounded theory approach. A theoretical model of ethical decision making from a moral stress perspective was developed. The practical implications of the study are discussed.

Purpose – The aim of this article is twofold: validation of a theoretical model of a civil contingencies agency management system, and methodological development by employing qualitative means for analysis.

Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical model to be validated serves as a starting point for a qualitative reanalysis of logic-deductive character, aimed at verification of the pre-existing theory that is already discovered and developed. Data from three previously published case studies were used as a frame of reference.

Findings – The theoretical model of a civil contingencies management system for disaster aid is validated in most respects. The qualitative testing for high trustworthiness proves reasonable with regard to selected reference studies.

Originality/value – The theoretical model of a civil contingencies agency management system for disaster aid was mostly confirmed and partly modified when being compared to empirical data and models from three previous case studies. Also, the qualitative approach to validating the theoretical model is, to the best knowledge of the authors, new.